After 43 years in business and
10 million visitors, Movieland Wax Museum closed its doors for good on
Oct. 31, 2005.

About 50 of the museum's celebrity
figures were shipped to a sister museum in San Francisco, and 80 others
went to a museum in South Korea. Most of the rest were put up for public
auction in March 2006, which brought in over a million dollars.

The "Star Trek"
cast went to a fan for $34,000. The Elizabeth Taylor / Cleopatra figure
went for $25,000 The Christopher Reeve / Superman figure sold for $16,000
(just days after the death of Reeve's widow), and Elvis went for $14,000.
That giant statue of Michelangelo's "David" that stood outside
trhe museum? It brought in $120,000. The buyer was none other than
USA Equities, which also bought several of the wax figures. They hope
to incorporate a small part of the old museum into their new development,
to "blend the old with the new..."

The building was originally scheduled to be demolished
and replaced by "Movieland Plaza", a shopping center featuring
a Best Buy store and a food court, with a few of the museum's wax figures remaining on display as a reminder of the past.

However, as of 2014, the building is still standing, looking more or less exactly as it did before it closed.

In August 2013,
a pair of temporary exhibitions opened in the building: "Titanic: The
Exhibition" and "Bodies: "The Exhibition". As of March 2014, the
exhibitions are still there, but I'm not sure how much longer they will
remain. It would appear that the renamed "Premier Exhibition Center"
may plan subsequent exhibitions to replace them after they leave.

I will leave this page up for
those who might be interested in reading about Movieland, but bear in mind
that it was written long before the museum closed.

According
to the director of Movieland Wax Museum, visiting Movieland "is
as close as most people will ever get to a movie star."

Sad but true - and that's one
reason why I created this website: to show people just how many different
ways there actually are to see a real star, in the flesh. You don't
have to settle for wax.

But what Movieland does, it
does very well indeed.

This,
the largest wax museum in the United States, gives the public a chance
to walk within inches of realistic wax figures of famous Hollywood movie
stars, to look them in their incredibly lifelike eyes, and to view some
extremely handsome sets.

And frankly, I think the place
is under appreciated. Far too few visitors were there when I paid my last
visit, on
a warm Friday in April. It's a shame, because this is a first-rate act.
The Hollywood Wax Museum (Movieland's
only competition in Southern California) pales by comparison.

The nearly 300 wax figures
at Movieland are, for the most part, remarkably lifelike. The clothing
worn by the figures are often original costumes, donated by the star himself
or by his studio, as are many of the props used in the scenes. Other costumes
have been painstakingly re-created for the displays (Garbo's
costume cost $35,000, and took 125 hours to sequin by hand).

The
museum is brightly lit, spacious (with mirrored walls making the rooms
appear even larger than they are), and colorful. The sets surrounding the
wax figures are large and handsome, with lush attention paid to even minor
details; they faithfully re-create well-known scenes from famous movies.
Musical themes and sound effects enhance the experience, as do artificial
trees, flowers, rainfall, chandeliers, ... even a gold Rolls Royce!

A surprising number of movie
stars have visited Movieland in person.

Mary
Pickford herself dedicated the new museum
when it first opened, back in 1962. Over the years, Jimmy
Stewart, George
Burns, Dudley
Moore, Ed
Asner, Buster
Keaton, CarolBurnett, Mae
West, Sammy Davis
Jr., Roger Moore,
and the entire cast of "Star Trek" (to name just
a few) all showed up in person to help unveil their own individual wax
likenesses. Even reclusive megastar Michael
Jackson put in a personal appearance when
his wax figure was unveiled here. Vincent
Price not only came to Movieland, but
he even stood-in for his wax likeness and scared people!

Even more stars have donated
original costumes to the museum. Hence, the tuxedo worn by Tom
Selleck comes directly from the movie
"Three Men and a Little Lady," and the wax figure of Christopher
Reeves wears an authentic costume from
the movie "Superman."

Several
of the sets here are ambitious in scale, especially the those of "The Poseidon
Adventure" (which re-creates the interior of a half-sunken, upside-down
ship), "Ben-Hur" (which captures the movie's dramatic
chariot race, with CharltonHeston
driving a team of horses), and the "Superman" set (featuring
the Man of Steel's frozen Fortress of Solitude, complete with chilly winds).
"The Wizard of Oz" diorama features a yellow brick
road leading through an enchanted forest up to Judy Garland
and friends, and the "Star Trek" set puts us on the bridge
of the Enterprise, along with the entire original crew at their
posts.

But even the smaller sets can
hide some delightful surprises.

Take,
for example, the re-creation of a key scene from Hitchcock's classic "Rear Window."
While the wax likeness of star Jimmy Stewart
is mediocre, the attention to detail is impressive. The set is designed
so that we are looking in through the very window Stewart looked out of
during the movie, as he spied on a suspected murderer across the street.
The cast on his broken leg has the same autograph given in the movie by
his co-star, Grace Kelly,
and there's even a copy of the threatening letter which Stewart's character
writes and sends to the suspect. Look carefully, and you'll spot photos
of Grace and director Alfred Hitchcock
on the bookshelf behind Stewart. (Incidentally, the original camera Stewart
used in that movie is on display at Planet Hollywood.)

Many of the wax figures are
wonderfully realistic. You can walk within inches of the Tom
Selleck figure, and still almost expect
him to move. The likenesses of John Wayne,
GeorgeBurns,
Ed Asner,
Whoopi Goldberg,
Jean Harlow,
Laurel & Hardy
andWilliamShatner are all exceptional works of
art.

In my opinion, though, with
the exception of Tom Selleck,
most of the newer figures don't seem to measure up to the quality
of the museum's older wax characters. My vote for the worst figures goes
to the new "Andy Griffith Show" scene: the likenesses
of Don Knotts
and Jim Nabors
are just awful. And in my opinion the figures of Michael
Landon, Fred
Astaire, Alan
Ladd, Dick Clark,
Michael J. Fox,
Elizabeth Taylor,
Tom Cruise,
KevinCostner,
Mel Gibson,
President Clinton
and Lucille Ball
could all be a lot better.

But half of the fun of visiting
a wax museum is deciding for yourself which figures look realistic and
which do not.

They have vastly expanded the
Chamber of Horrors since my last visit (and have completely eliminated
the religious section). It is now a long, winding tunnel, filled with cobwebs
and flashing lightning, taking the visitor past a dozen or more sets recreating
scenes from famous horror movies: Frankenstein
looms in his lab while electricity crackles about, the Creature
from the Black Lagoon wades neck-deep
in bubbling water, and Linda Blair's
head revolves on her vomit-covered wax figure from "The Exorcist."
There's nothing very scary in here, actually, but the new "Texas
Chainsaw Massacre" set may be a bit too gory for some tastes: it
has a blood-spattered Leatherface
wielding a bloody chainsaw, in a landscape littered with severed heads
and other body parts.

Other recent additions include Leonardo Dicaprio
and Kate Winslet,
Donny & Marie Osmond,
Brad Pitt,Bruce Willis,
Jackie Chan
and Geena Davis.
The museum has also a section for pop music stars, featuring Michael Jackson
(backed by an endless screening of his videos), as well as new figures
of Billy Ray Cyrusand Madonna.

As a side note, however, do
you want to know just how fleeting fame can be in Hollywood? Well then,
take a close look at the "Spartacus" set, and you'll notice
that one of the "extras" is actually the figure of former "Tonight
Show" host Johnny Carson,
now sporting a new hairdo...

Take the time to read the small
signs posted near each set. They not only include the names of each of
the wax figures, but also provide fascinating facts about the movies, props,
costumes and actors involved. (For instance, Gary
Cooper's mother not only donated his costumes
to the museum, but she also showed up each year on his birthday to visit
his wax figure on the "High Noon" set.)

The museum chooses four new
figures each year, based on popularity polls taken among visitors to the
museum (who are asked to list the top five personalities they'd like to
see added to the museum). Not all stars agree to have their likeness cast
in wax, though...

The museum does little in the
way of advertising (just a few brochures here and there), depending instead
upon the proximity of the nearby Knott's
Berry Farm to attract customers.

When you first arrive, they
will sit you down next to a seated figure of George Burns
and take your photo. After your visit to the museum is finished, you will
find your personalized photo posted on a wall, and will be offered the
chance to buy it.

The box office is open every
day of the year, including holidays, Mon-Fri: 10 AM -6 PM;
Fri-Sun: 9 AM - 7 PM. (The museum remains open for an hour and
a half after the box office closes.) There's a free parking lot.

Getting
there:
Movieland is located in Buena Park, about 30 miles southeast of Hollywood,
and about five miles northwest of Disneyland. It's just one block north
of Knott's Berry Farm, on the west side of Beach Boulevard, across the
street from Medieval Times. / From Disneyland, take the Santa Ana
(5) Freeway north to the Beach Boulevard exit, then head south on Beach
to the museum. / From Hollywood, take the Hollywood (101)
Freeway south to the Santa Ana (5) Freeway. Take the Santa Ana Freeway
south to Buena Park and get off on the Beach Boulevard exit. Head south
on Beach about a mile, then turn right (west) into the museum's parking
lot. Look for the huge Movieland sign. You can't miss it. / Alternatively,
take the Artesia/Riverside (91)Freeway to the Beach Boulevard
exit, then head south about half a mile.

This webpage is not associated
with any business described in the article above, and does not constitute
an
endorsement of this or any other business. The photos of celebrities on
this page also do not constitute
endorsements by them of any kind, and are used by the author solely to
illustrate this online article.(Click here
to read other disclaimers)